Morris, Robert: Beloit List

There will forever be a generation gap, there’s no escaping it.  The next generation will always move a little faster than the one before. There are some similarities as well because one generation instills certain things such as moral fiber upon the next.

Firstly, before one attempts to compare generations one must know why there is a gap in the first place. There are several different reasons for gaps between generations, but there is typically one major reason. For an example let us travel to the 1960s. This was a time of social change. The generation gap of this era was mainly sparked by a spiritual catalyst. The moral beliefs of the young generation were rapidly changing, continuously moving, and the older generation was content to stand still. This was the cause of the generation gap. For the cause of the current generation gap there is no need to dig so deep. The root cause is not spirituality but technology. Even basic knowledge of the Internet can create a gap so large that few dare to cross it. There are many parents who attempt to bridge the gap by learning the hip new “lingo,” and while that can be beneficial it would be much easier to simply add their child as a friend on Facebook. 

Secondly, once adequate knowledge of the gap is obtained one can feel free to stare at the blatantly obvious thing that is the differences between the generations. There are several key differences between the generations the first being the obvious one, age. This is the thing that actually determines the generations, so it has to be one of the things that separate them. First of all, the older generation typically has more experience with this thing called life and has thus had more time to mess up than the younger generation. This being true, a member the older generation probably knows a lot more about life than a member of the younger generation. This incenses the younger generation because they believe that because they can work a laptop and their parents can’t then they shouldn’t have to listen to them. This leads to the younger generation towards making many of the same mistakes as the older generation. This contributes to the generation gap soon to come in the future and drives them closer to the older generation.

Lastly, once one notes the differences the only thing left is the similarities. While reading the Beloit articles it is simple to note the differences between the two generations, but they leave out the most important thing, and that’s the similarities, because at the end of the day it won’t matter if the younger generation thought that LBJ was LeBron James and not Lyndon B. Johnson, because the next generation won’t care who either of them are. This is the main similarity, the inevitable fall into the same hole as the previous generation, and the gaps will continually grow larger and larger. In 20 years it won’t matter that I typed this on a computer, because the next generation will just have to think and the words will come across the screen, no more spell check for them. At this point I will hate the new technology because I will feel left behind much like the older generation does now. This mutual feeling of hate toward the technology of the future is what binds the generations together.

In conclusion, gap or no gap we all end up in the same hole in the end, with the next generation racing to leave us all behind only to be knocked back into the same hole by the next and so on. It is such a grand and beautiful cycle.